Blogger of the week: Marianne DiNapoli, the MD to Be blogger

Marianne DiNapoli in her work clothes (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)

If Marianne DiNapoli hadn’t chosen medicine, she’d have a promising career writing book titles. “My first patient was already dead,” “Urology is such a boys’ club,” and “What the pediatrician says to your teen when you leave the room” are a few of her blog greatest hits.

Marianne’s blog gives an eyewitness account of life as a med student. It’s physically exhausting and mentally challenging, and also equal parts funny and nauseating. Her “Medical Mystery Monday,” in which she describes a patient’s symptoms with accompanying photos and lets readers guess the diagnosis, is a must-read for doctor wanna-bes. Be forewarned: she plans to introduce STD’s into those weekly posts.

She doesn’t dispense medical advice and she always respects her patients’ privacy, but she does share opinions on medicine and medical schooling. And as Marianne begins her third year of med school today, we can expect more stories written by a smart, thoughtful young woman who cares deeply about her patients. Want to know how a doctor in training thinks? Get a daily dose of the MDtoBe blog.

Name: Marianne DiNapoli

Age: 25

Family: I’m engaged to Collin Jennings. He’s a ph.D. student at NYU. We met when we were teaching high school students in Houston.

Where do you live? Manhattan.

Why? I can walk to school.

High school and college? Bethlehem Central and College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.

When did you know you wanted to be a doctor? When I was young, I thought about it a lot. In college, I went back and forth between a research scientist and a doctor. I decided I wanted to work with people, and couldn’t be cooped up in a lab all day. I enjoy interacting with patients.

Before medical school, what sorts of jobs did you have? I worked as a teaching assistant at Holy Cross for three years. I helped with the labs.

Thinking back to high school biology and the dissection class. How did you react to the dead, smelly frog? I like gross things. I remember thinking it was fun to play with the fat inside the frog.

If not a doctor or research scientist, what other careers did you look at? Social work. I have experience teaching, so maybe I’d do something with education. I’d like to do something about the achievement gap in our country between low income and the wealthy.

How did you decide on medical school? After I graduated from Holy Cross in 2007, I spent two years with Teach for America in Houston. It’s an Americorps program. That’s when I decided for sure to apply to med school.

What type of medicine will you practice? They say you pick your specialty based on which bodily fluid you least hate putting your hand into. But seriously, I’m interested in OB/Gyn. When I was nine, I was in the delivery room and watched the birth of my brother. I volunteered at the women’s shelter at college and I saw the barriers poor women face getting access to health care. Again, when I was teaching high school in Houston, so many students were having babies. I had a ninth grader with two children. I’m interested in helping women have access to quality health care.

With all the work involved in medical school, how do you find time to blog and tweet? I don’t sleep much. During a hard rotation, I might sleep four hours.

Do you see sexism in the medical field? I’ve seen more of it lately in the male-dominated specialities. I don’t have to deal with nearly the same level of sexism as the generations before me, but here’s one story. I was sitting at a desk in the hospital doing work on a computer and a woman came up to me and said, “Excuse me, nurse.” It happens, but it’s getting much better.

How much schoolwork is involved? There’s an exam at the end of every five–week block. At the end of the work day, you go home and study. Usually, I’m too tired to study, so I do most of the schoolwork on weekends.

Who do you think reads your blog? I think a lot of med students and doctors and science nerds in general.

What fun things have you done recently to get away from the books? We go out to eat. Shakespeare in the Park. We went to a Yankee game.

Where do you get your news? Times Union. That’s usually one of the first things I check. I look at my Gmail, Twitter, Facebook and my blog for comments. I read a couple other med student blogs. We don’t have a TV. I mostly get my news from the TU or Twitter.

What’s the biggest misconception of medical school? I think patients would be surprised to know how much care is done by residents and med students at teaching hospitals.

Whose blogs would you love to read? Marie Curie. And Hippocrates, to see what his thought process was as he developed the foundation of medicine.

Has studying medicine changed the way you feel about your body? It has. You hear exercise decreases your risk of everything, so I definitely try to exercise more. And I eat pretty well.

Is it frustrating that patients don’t take better care of themselves? It is, but I do think it’s partly the doctor’s job to change that. I think some doctors get a little jaded. It can wear on you.

What books are you reading in your down time? None. I don’t have time for anything not school-related. I do read the New Yorker with my breakfast.

Favorite doctor on TV? I like Lexie Grey from “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Favorite author? Dr. Frank H. Netter, who wrote the “Atlas of Human Anatomy.”

8 Responses

Very informative! As for the kind of readers for your blog, add “grandmother type”, that would describe me! I love medical mystery Monday, and never get the correct diagnosis, but I learn something new every week ! Thank you so much for letting us into this aspect of your life–it’s so interesting !